


Fallen Maple Leaf

by LeelaSmall



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Backstory, Character Death, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:48:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24200854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeelaSmall/pseuds/LeelaSmall
Summary: "Dan could feel his blood freeze inside his veins. Ted was still talking to him over the phone, but all he could hear were his previous words echoing inside his head. She didn’t make it…"
Relationships: "Manly" Dan Corduroy/Wendy Corduroy's Mother
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3





	Fallen Maple Leaf

Manly Dan had always been good at his job. Every day he would go to the woods, chop down the required number of trees and carry the trunks back to the lumber mill. But one thing he did not count on was having his boss ask him to deroot the stumps. A task that should have been a piece of cake for the muscular red-headed lumberjack quickly proved to be more than he could handle, so his boss suggested that they should hire a helping hand.

“I told you, I don’t need no stinkin’ help!” he barked over the phone. “I can rip this thing out of the ground with my bare hands!”

“Dan, as I much as I believe you’re strong enough uproot a stump twice your size, I can’t allow you to do that. It’s against regulations.” His boss insisted.

“Screw regulations! The guy will take all day to get this done! I can get this sucker out before lunchtime!”

“Dan, please! The last thing I need right now is the union rep breathing down my neck. You’re going to sit and wait for the demolition expert, and that’s final!”

Dan released a frustrated groan as he heard his boss hang up. He gritted his teeth and stared at the large sequoia stump at his feet; it seemed to be mocking him with its presence.

He growled as he gripped the stump and began pulling it, which seemed to be a losing battle. But Manly Dan Corduroy was not about to give up so soon.

“My my, how resilient!”

Dan whipped his head around to find a young woman behind him. She was rather petite and feminine, and wore a forest green dress, a pair of eyeglasses and a beret with the same color of her dress. Her long vanilla blonde hair cascaded down her back and reached her waist, and her piercing blue eyes were kind and inviting. She smiled warmly at him as she lowered the large backpack she was carrying, making him notice a large cigar between her lips with a maple leaf on the label.

“I admire your persistence, but that’s not going to budge anytime soon.” She declared, and Dan detected a slight French accent. “You’ll need some help.”

“I don’t need any help.” Dan retorted as he tried to pull the stump out of the ground again. “I… got… this…”

“At this rate, the only thing you’re going to get is a nasty back injury.” She said as she unzipped her backpack and began rummaging inside.

“Who are you, some sort of expert?” Dan grunted.

“As a matter of fact, I am. A demolition expert, to be precise.”

Dan froze before turning back towards the woman, who was now holding about a dozen sticks of dynamite.

“You? _You’re_ the demolition expert?” Dan scoffed.

“Why should that be so surprising?” she teased as she pulled out a detonator from her backpack. “Is it because I’m a woman?”

“No, it’s because you’re… y’know.” He trailed off as he gestured towards her body. “Puny.”

“Contrary to popular belief, dealing with explosives requires mostly brains, not brawn.” She said as she placed the required amount of dynamite around the stump. “It takes quite a lot of calculations to determine the quantity of dynamite to use in order to create a controlled explosion that will demolish the required object without affecting anything in its surroundings.”

Once she finished surrounding the stump with dynamite, she attached the detonator’s chord to one of the sticks and took a few steps back.

“You may want to stand back.” She advised, to which Dan complied instantly.

As soon as the lumberjack was at a safe distance, she pushed down the detonator’s lever and watched as the earth surrounding the stump was blown away, leaving its roots out in the open. Dan walked towards the stump and was now able to pull it out of the ground without exerting any effort. He looked over at the woman, and couldn’t help but feel impressed.

“Not bad.” He remarked, throwing the stump over his shoulder so it would be easier to carry. “What did you say your name was?”

“I didn’t.” she replied as she blew a puff of cigar smoke from her mouth, which Dan noticed that smelt like pine needles and maple syrup, and extended a hand. “Rachel Beauchêne.”

“Beauchêne? What is that, French?”

“French-Canadian.”

“Ah. That explains it, then.” He took her hand and shook it. “Daniel Corduroy. But folks around here call me Manly Dan.”

“Gee, I wonder why.” She laughed, eyeing his massive muscles.

They hadn’t noticed the dark clouds that had covered the sky. The rain suddenly began pouring, extinguishing Rachel’s cigar. She tried to strike a match to relight it but was unable to get the match to ignite due to the rain. She kept trying, and not a moment later, a bolt of lightning directly struck the tip of her cigar, lighting it and covering her in soot.

“Ouch.” She deadpanned.

“We better get ourselves out of this storm.” Said Dan as he began walking out of the woods. “Grab your gear and let’s go.”

Rachel packed her materials as fast as she could. As soon as she had grabbed her backpack, she felt herself be lifted off the ground. Before she knew it, she had been flung over Dan’s shoulder and was being carried out of the woods by the large man.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” she yelped, unable to suppress a chuckle.

“You were taking forever. This way is much faster.” He replied, a hint of mischief in his tone. “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you.”

“What, you’ve carried other women like this before?” she asked teasingly.

“This is actually my first time.”

“Well, I’m honored. But I wish you had bought me dinner first.”

“That can still be arranged.”

* * *

Dan and Rachel kept meeting up from that day onwards, and what began as a simple friendship quickly evolved into something much deeper. They seemed to go perfectly together. Her big, fat cigar rarely ever seemed to leave her mouth, giving the air around her a distinct scent of pine needles and maple syrup, and she put it to good use by lighting up explosives for her job. Not only that, she once confided in Dan that she owned a cannon with which she had been shot out of for charity. On their first anniversary, Dan gave her a trapper hat as a gift. Truth be told, he had never been the best when it came to presents, but Rachel loved it nonetheless, promising to wear it anytime the weather was especially chilly.

They got married around a year and a half after their first meeting. The ceremony was held in a condemned chapel scheduled to be demolished. On the way out of the chapel, Rachel nonchalantly took out a detonator from the pocket of her wedding dress and pressed the large red button on it, causing the chapel to explode spectacularly and shoot off fireworks into the sky. Everyone agreed that was one wedding they would never forget.

They had four kids over the course of their marriage; a girl and three boys. Rachel was an excellent mother and Dan proved to a great father, always available to lend a helping hand or to just play with the kids. Rachel’s heart would swell whenever she watched him play with their children. It was like watching a big kid playing with four smaller ones. She could see he was happy, and that made _her_ happy.

One day, eight years into their marriage, Dan was home watching the kids while Rachel was at work. It was his first day off in what felt like ages, and he couldn’t think of a better way to spend it. He sat on the living room sofa with baby Gus asleep in his arms, while Kevin and Marcus were playing with their building blocks on the floor and Wendy was somewhere exploring the house. The early summer sun was coming in from the window and radiating onto his skin, sending a warm sensation through his body. He was beyond content.

He heard his phone ring on the coffee table beside him. He gently moved his arm from underneath his snoozing son in order to not wake him as he grabbed his phone.

“Yeah?” he said as he answered the call.

“Dan? This is Ted, Rachel’s boss.” Spoke the voice on the other side. “Remember, we met at the office Christmas party last year?”

“Yeah, Ted!” Dan replied cheerfully. “How the heck are ya?”

“Dan…” he heard Ted take in a deep breath. “I’m not sure how to tell you this. There’s been an accident.”

Dan abruptly stood up straight, which caused Gus to stir in his lap.

“What kind of accident?” Dan asked, his voice shaking with each word.

“Rachel was in charge of detonating a condemned building downtown, but something went wrong. I’m not sure what it was, maybe some faulty wiring on the detonator…”

Dan was hanging on Ted’s every word, his heart pounding against his chest.

“She didn’t make it.”

Dan could feel his blood freeze inside his veins. Ted was still talking to him over the phone, but all he could hear were his previous words echoing inside his head. _She didn’t make it_ …

He hung up the phone without saying another word, still struggling to process what he had just heard. It felt like his whole world had crumbled around him in just a matter of seconds, and he wasn’t sure if he could handle it. He could feel tears well up in his eyes as it finally sunk in. The love of his life was gone.

“Daddy, look!”

He was snapped back into reality by his daughter, who had just entered the room wearing the trapper hat he had given Rachel on their first anniversary. She clearly had been in their room.

“Do I look like mommy?” she asked as she happily twirled around with the hat on top of her head, which looked too big on her.

Dan felt at tug at his heart. He couldn’t bring himself to tell his seven-year-old daughter the truth about her mother. How would he even do that? How does one tell a child that on of their parents has passed away?

He just watched her as she beamed at him, adjusting the hat atop her tiny head. She did _look_ like her, in a way.

“Yeah… you really do, sugar.” Dan stifled a sob and forced himself to smile at the little girl before him, giving her a gentle pat on the head. “Tell you what, why don’t you keep it? It suits you.”

“Really?” Wendy squealed, to which Dan just nodded. “Yay! I can’t wait to show mommy when she gets home!”

Wendy ran out of the room in glee. As soon as she was out of his sight, Dan broke down in tears, his entire body shaking with each sob that escaped his throat. That had been the first time he cried.


End file.
